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Certain Rorschach responses are of interest to the psycho-analytically-oriented Rorschach worker in that their content seems to be a symbolic representation of unconscious mental processes. These responses appear to represent wish-fulfilments in the same way as dreams and symptoms, and are often extremely well constructed from the raw material of the blot.
The interpretation of such symbolic content in addition to the classical Rorschach assessment of the test-results affords a deeper insight into the subject's unconscious mental life. The investigator should be careful, however, not to interpret these responses purely by analogy with dream material, and to guard against the temptations of 'wild' psycho-analysis. Both the Rorschach and the Behn-Rorschach (Bero) blots2 should be used, for it has been found that subjects will follow a certain 'inner sequence' in their responses to each test. Information from one test will confirm and supplement the findings of the other. In addition the Z-test3 has been found useful in supplying indications of underlying complexes.
If the subject has established a good transference relationship to the investigator, then it may be possible to probe a little further, and careful questioning may elicit relevant information directly from the subject. Often, too, his relatives can be helpful, though the best validation of the test findings would come through the psycho-analysis of the subject.
Even in those cases where the investigator is asked for advice and guidance, and not for an extensive psychological report, such an analysis of test content will materially assist him in understanding the patient's difficulties, and will therefore enable him to give more appropriate advice.
I should like to show, with an actual example, the value of psycho-analytical investigation of certain response contents, over and above the usual formal Rorschach interpretation. The case is one of a fifteen-year-old girl, whom we shall call Edith, and who was